I recently told Mike Vardy over at the Productivityist how much I love facilitating project meetings and he told me I had a to write a blog post about it. It hadn’t occurred to me how unusual I might be… Continue Reading →
One phrase I want to drop from my vocabulary is the trite and over-used term often thrown around at the beginning of meetings by a host or facilitator who says they “want to honor everyone’s time.” One big way to… Continue Reading →
One of the compliments I received a few weeks ago was an appreciation for my efficient meetings. I was never sure if anyone noticed or cared. In this spirit, when I kicked off my first program meeting with the Red… Continue Reading →
Last time I defined several ways to have bad meetings. This post was going to explore one of those “bad ways to have meeting” in detail. Then I realized it would be better to start by defining what a “good… Continue Reading →
I’m thinking about writing a book about technical project meetings at software companies and ways I’ve found to make them better. To see if I have enough to work with I’m going to kick off a series of blog posts… Continue Reading →
I was having a telling a new person about an upcoming meeting I had on a difficult problem and they asked me, “Are you going to escalate this?” I’m sure it was a normal question in the environment they came… Continue Reading →
Great retrospectives are all about asking the right questions and collecting the right amount of information. Retrospectives are a waste of time if the team conducting them is not committed to acting on what they uncover. Retrospectives are often used… Continue Reading →
Rework has a chapter called “Meetings are Toxic.” Like several chapters in the book, this one closed with some punchy advice. If you must have a meeting they suggest the following: Set a timer. When it rings, meeting’s over. Period…. Continue Reading →
How to Not Really Win An Argument by Donald Miller–I think the argumentative tone on the Fedora mailing lists has gotten better. Here are some ideas to go further. The Beauty of Damaged Goods by Carolyn Campbell– “Ah, this is… Continue Reading →
David Grady covers all the angles here except calling out and repeating the same bug number multiple times.
Recently someone complimented me in an unusual way: “You have the best meeting agendas,” they said. I hadn’t ever thought about it because the only thing I ever evaluate is the outcome of my meetings–whether people are engaged, the discussion… Continue Reading →
At a recent project management class at Portland State University, Tonia McConnell–a great instructor I’ve worked with in other classes–asked me how my meetings were going. Since my first class with Tonia I’ve used Gobby more deliberately in a lot… Continue Reading →
At the suggestion of design diva Máirín Duffy, I’ve been reading Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning by Dan Brown. I’m not that far into the book, but a lot of it resonates with me. Particularly… Continue Reading →
© 2024 John Poelstra — Powered by WordPress
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑